How a Missouri woman discovered her mom was one of Vietnam's first rock stars

Story Transcript

Hannah Hà has always known her mother could sing. Whether it was around the house, at family gatherings, or on the karaoke stage, she's always had an incredible voice and presence.

But over the past two years, the St. Louis, Miss., woman has slowly uncovered a musical past her mother kept secret for decades. 

In 1960s Saigon, Nguyễn Thi Tâm sang her heart out while she was on stage in the city's tea rooms and night clubs. Tâm, who went by the stage name Phuong Tâm, became one of the first singers to perform and record rock 'n' roll in Vietnam.

It wasn't until 2019 when Hà got an email from a producer of a Vietnamese film asking to use her mother's music, that she realized her mom once had a career in show biz, she told the Guardian. That's when she began her search for her mother's old tracks, which are now part of a new album called Magical Nights: Saigon Surf, Twist and Soul.

Hà and her mother Tâm, who now lives in San Jose, Calif., spoke with As It Happens host Carol Off about the phenomenon that was Phuong Tâm. Here is part of their conversation.

Tâm, we just heard a bit of you singing [Có Nhớ Đêm Nào, which is Vietnamese for] Remember the Night. So when you close your eyes and you listen to that recording, where does it take you?

I don't remember. After I quit, you know, in 1966, when I married with my husband and I [went] to Da Nang ... I forgot everything. I let it go behind me.

You married and you had kids and those kids are now grown up. And one of them is [here]. Hannah, hello.

Hi, Carol, how are you?

I'm OK. When you hear your mum singing in the mid-1960s rock 'n' roll, what do you make of that?

I grew up not really appreciating Vietnamese music. It was too slow for me and a lot of it was traditional slow ballads, bolero, and I didn't have the ear for Vietnamese music. 

It was not until I heard my mom singing where it connected me to that culture that was lost. 

I started looking and searching and was able to uncover almost 30 tracks that my mom sang, and most of them were rock 'n' roll.... I didn't even know that Saigon had rock 'n' roll music.

But you didn't even know your mum was a rock 'n' roll star in Vietnam, did you? You didn't know your mum had had this career before she got married and had you.

I knew that she was a singer, because a lot of Vietnamese people that lived in Saigon ... made a great living singing and entertaining for the American soldiers and the businessmen. But they were all doing covers ... of American music. Elvis Presley. The Beatles. So it was a complete surprise to hear Vietnamese rock and twist and blues. And my mother was one of the first to record those types of music.

And these were original tracks, as you point out. These weren't covers. These were songs your mum performed in Saigon in the 1960s, right?

Yes. [But] she rarely performed them live. 

The patrons, the listeners, the music-goers wanted her to sing American songs, so that's what we heard growing up and completely had forgotten that she recorded [this] great Saigon rock music. 

The first song that you heard, Có Nhớ Đêm Nào, was a song that was written by a famous musician, Khánh Băng. He knew that my mother could sing American rock 'n' roll music … so he wrote this song and said, "I want you to record this song with me." 

He came over to my mother's house. She was 18 at the time and she was, of course, living in her parent's home. With the guitars slung on his back ... [he] sat down and taught her the music. Within a day, they met at a studio and recorded that first track.

Tâm do you remember that? You said ... you just left it all behind, you forgot about it when you got married, but do you remember doing these recordings of these songs?

Yes. You know, since I was a teenager, I loved American music.

It was a complete surprise to hear Vietnamese rock and twist and blues. And my mother was one of the first to record those types of music.- Hannah Hà, daughter of Nguyễn Thi Tâm

But you went on to do so many recordings. And, Hannah, you have found these recordings, is that right?

It was an international, collaborative effort, Carol. We had a hard time finding the rest of the album. I had in my collection an eBay purchase of one album with three tracks. And so we had to cast a wider net and just had so many generous collectors helping us.

Tâm, when you hear the songs that you sang all those years ago, the songs that Hannah is finding, these recordings, what's it like for you to listen to those?

I always cry. I was very surprised with me.

Why did you cry?

Because I don't understand why I have that album, you know? I don't remember anything when I was [a] singer.

Your years of singing, your recording in the mid-'60s, it was a time of war. Your family had to finally leave in the 1970s. A lot of trauma at that time, right Tâm? It was a really difficult time. Do you think that was part of it?

At that time, [we were] very sad and wanted to entertain the GI [the American soldiers].

They didn't know you had these wonderful rock 'n' roll Vietnamese songs then?

No, they didn't know. 

You have a great voice. It's just listening to that is really something. And Hannah, are you really keen about sharing this music with a new generation of Vietnamese?

I think this is going to serve as a springboard for what's to come. 

As I was doing the research, I felt that the culture of Vietnam before 1975 has been shattered by not only ... the physical destruction of the war, but also the erasure of culture. 

The erasure of anything that was produced before 1975 is gone. Forbidden, destroyed, burned, buried. The Phuong Tâm story is just one of those little pieces. And so I am hoping that this will serve as a springboard for other people to come forth and do projects like this so that we can learn a little bit more about what was lost.

I am doing this for my kids and my grandkids and so many people that want to cling onto Vietnam's culture before 1975 that didn't connect with the music of that time.

Written by Mehek Mazhar. Interview produced by John McGill. Q&A edited for length and clarity.